Strangest Reason You Couldn't Make an Exposure

We've all been stopped from making exposures by changing light, people interrupting, limited time, forgetting film or equipment, scenes changing and so on...

But what is the strangest reason that prevented you from making an exposure?

For me it was a dead kitty in the middle of the road.

Sunday, on our way home from a snowy hike, my girlfriend and I encountered a beautiful scene involving a farm, fresh tire tracks in the snow, a lovely fence line, some gorgeous snow covered weeds, and glowacious soft winter light. Sadly, just ahead of where I would have had to stop there was a dead kitty laying in the road. It was a somber sight but probably wouldn't have prevented me from working on my own, but I was not on my own. My girl is incredibly supportive and always happy to stop and work but I knew doing so here would have put her in a funk for the rest of the day. She's a sweetheart and loves little animals. I didn't hesitate... just kept on driving and got past the cat as quickly as possible.

(There was no question as to the state of the poor thing or else I would have checked on it...)

I have failed for all of the usual reasons:
inconsiderate 'tourists' stepping right in front of my camera on tripod
a passerby wants to engage in a conversation about (fill in the blank) as the light passes
camera jams
no film in camera
failure to remove the lens cap
failure to close the preview lever after GG focusing
Failure to pull the darkslide / failure to replace the darkslide
dropped camera in parking lot / destroyed lens on arrival at event.
a drunk wedding guest mistakenly picked up my camera and walked off with it
chased off by private security.
wind/weather/clouds no cooperating.

I went to the cricket on Sunday, to see us aussies wipe the floor with the poms. I took my digital but left it in the bag until the very end for when I was out of film. First I had 3 rolls of TXP to use up on my EOS 3, with 70-300L and Kenko 1.4x t/c, effective f/8 and 1/500-1500.
Mostly I was pointing at the batter as the bowler came in, trying to get some action shots of batter hitting the ball.
But with 90 overs in the day and 6 balls an over for those yanks who don't understand cricket, I obviously didn't have enough frames to shoot *every* time. So mostly I was just snapping the occasional shot, trying to pick when the batter would let it past or block and ignore those, only take the 'action' shots (as much of 'action' as you can get at a test match).
So at some point the bowler was running in (kept my left eye open), my right eye on the batter through the lens. And it didn't look like he was going to do anything so I just froze, didn't take the shot. Clean bowled him. Same thing happened again a few overs later, missed a great short-fielder catch because my finger just froze. No idea why, it's not like I made a conscious decision to not take the shot, I just didn't. (maybe it was all the Pimms). Still, I got 3 rolls of perfect shots of them blocking and leaving and (probably) no action shots...

An awful lot of electrons were terribly inconvenienced in the making of this post.

Many years ago I was asked to get a group shot at a special occasion. But one woman in the group was so self-centered and had such low confidence and self-esteem that she got in the front row and sat on the floor with her back to the camera. When asked to move, she would not, and there was no other place to move the group that was adequate for the picture. We all waited a very long time for another opportunity.

What Brian said. Because of that picayune oversight, in 1982 I missed a shot that would have put me on the cover of Life or something similar. Now I carry a camera everywhere, all the time, even out to the mailbox. Of course, now nothing ever happens. Curses.

But what is the strangest reason that prevented you from making an exposure?

Forgetting that I had not loaded a new roll of film after the last exposure. I did that again on a recent tour to Central Australia for a sunrise shot of Uluru, alas...! It is strange for me and it was put down to tiredness: I don't perform well at 4.15am in the morning...

Not too strange, but interviewing people involved in the grand opening of a Cracker Barrel restaurant. I was working for a weekly paper as a journalist; photography was just an add-on when appropriate. I was interviewing one of the key people involved when they cut the ribbon behind us... without telling anyone they were about to cut it. Guess that's what I get for actually interviewing people and not inventing the news (unlike our competitors).

Also, the paper had us use its point-and-shoot film camera. The red-eye pre-flash could not be disabled, so it was common to miss any action because of the delay.

i have a few really weird reasons, one
was not enough light, i made it anyways,
and it didn't really matter.
another was that i wasn't allowed to, you know
trespassing and land owners and all those BS
hoops they make strangers jump through to legitimize
the whole experience, and the last was i got to the site
and what was supposed to be there, wasn't there.

Driving for an hour. Carrying a heavy tripod through the wood. Setting up the tripod at the right spot only to find that I left the base for my Cambo back home.
Nothing much you can do without a base. Packed up and went back home.
Perhaps more of a stupid reason than a strange one.